When I finished, he walked to the window and stared at the aircraft parked on the runway below.
“Your mother always told you that kindness was a strength,” he said.
“It is.”
“Yes. But kindness without boundaries allows the wrong people to mistake generosity for permission.”
I looked down at my wedding ring.
“I think Aaron has forgotten who I am.”
My father turned toward me.
“No, sweetheart. I think he has never bothered to find out.”
Before I could answer, Daniel arrived carrying a thick folder.
He looked exhausted.
“I’m sorry to involve you in this,” he began. “But after what happened this morning, I don’t think we can afford to wait.”
He placed the folder on my father’s desk.
Inside were financial statements, invoices, internal emails, and records of several transfers from Prescott Technologies to a collection of consulting companies.
The first transfer was for $420,000.
The second was for $780,000.
The third exceeded $1.2 million.
Every payment had been approved under Aaron’s executive authorization.
But several invoices appeared to describe services that had never been delivered.
Daniel pointed to a company registered only six months earlier.
“Northstar Strategic Consulting,” he explained. “It’s listed as a vendor for several major projects. We paid it more than $8 million over four months.”
“Who owns it?” I asked.
Daniel hesitated.
“The ownership records list a holding company. But our preliminary investigation suggests that Jasmine has a connection to it.”
My father slowly closed the folder.
“Has anyone contacted the company’s board?”
“Not yet. I wanted to verify the records before escalating the issue.”
I looked at the documents again.
There was something else that bothered me.
The payments had started shortly after Jasmine was promoted.
And several had been made just days before Aaron announced that the company needed another round of financing.
“Does Aaron know about these discrepancies?” I asked.
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“He approved the payments, but I can’t tell you whether he understood what the documents represented. Some supporting records appear to have been altered after approval.”
For the first time that day, I felt genuinely afraid.
Not because I was worried about losing money.
But because I realized that the man I had defended for four years might have allowed his company to become something neither of us recognized.
My father picked up his phone.
“I’m contacting our legal team. Nobody will make accusations until the evidence has been properly reviewed. We will preserve the records, protect the legitimate investors, and let the appropriate authorities determine what happened.”
I nodded.
That was exactly what I wanted.
I wasn’t interested in revenge for its own sake.
I wanted the truth.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He checked the screen and looked at me.
“It’s Aaron.”
“Put it on speaker.”
Daniel answered.
“Aaron, I’m with Alyssa and Mr. Hayes.”
There was a brief silence.
Then Aaron’s furious voice filled the room.
“What is she doing there?”
I leaned toward the phone.
“Good afternoon, Aaron.”
“Don’t play games with me. You embarrassed me in front of my entire executive team. You had no right to interfere with my flight.”
I almost laughed.
“Your flight?”
Another silence.
Then he lowered his voice.
“Come back to the airport. We’ll discuss this privately.”
“No.”
“Alyssa, I’m your husband.”
“And I was your wife when you told me to sit in row five.”
He exhaled sharply.
“You’re making a ridiculous situation worse.”
“Then perhaps you should explain the payments to Northstar Strategic Consulting.”
The line went completely silent.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Aaron asked a question that confirmed my suspicions.
“Who told you about Northstar?”
I looked at Daniel.
He had gone pale.
I returned my attention to the phone.
“That’s the question you’re worried about?”
Aaron’s voice became cold.
“You have no idea what you’re getting involved in.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“I don’t have time for this.”
He hung up.
My father slowly placed his phone on the desk.
Daniel stared at the financial records.
And I sat perfectly still, realizing that the seat on the private jet had been the smallest part of what was happening.
Because Aaron hadn’t simply humiliated me.
He had reacted with fear the moment I mentioned a company he insisted he barely had time to discuss.
I turned toward Daniel.
“What haven’t you told us?”
He swallowed.
“There’s one more document.”
He reached into his folder and removed a printed email.
It had been sent from Jasmine’s company account to an unidentified recipient three weeks earlier.
The subject line read:
PROJECT FALCON — FINAL AUTHORIZATION
I began reading.
The email referred to a confidential technology acquisition that Prescott Technologies was preparing to announce in Geneva.
According to Daniel, the deal was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
But the email suggested that someone intended to redirect a portion of the acquisition proceeds through Northstar before the transaction closed.
At the bottom of the page was a sentence that made my blood run cold.
Once the Geneva agreement is signed, neither Alyssa nor the Hayes family will have sufficient time to intervene.
I looked up.
“Who was she writing to?”
Daniel shook his head.
“We haven’t confirmed the recipient’s identity.”
My father stood immediately.
“Then we have our next step. We secure the evidence, contact the appropriate legal advisers, and prevent any unauthorized transaction from proceeding.”
I nodded.
But before Daniel could put the email away, my phone rang.
Aaron’s name appeared on the screen.
This time, I answered.
His voice was no longer angry.
It was quiet.
Almost desperate.
“Alyssa, listen to me carefully. Whatever Daniel has shown you, don’t believe everything in those documents.”
“Why not?”
“Because Jasmine has been lying to both of us.”
I closed my eyes.
For months, I had watched Aaron defend Jasmine while dismissing every concern I raised.
Now, suddenly, he wanted me to believe he was another victim.
“Then tell me the truth,” I said.
He took a shaky breath.
“I can’t explain it over the phone.”
“You’ve had eight months to explain it.”
“I know.”
“And four years to treat me like your partner.”
He said nothing.
I looked through the glass wall of my father’s office toward the runway.
The private jet was still parked exactly where I had left it.
For the first time, I understood that the real question wasn’t whether Aaron would apologize for humiliating me.
It was whether the man I had loved had any intention of telling me the truth before his entire empire came crashing down.
“Come to the headquarters,” I finally said. “Bring every document related to Northstar and the Geneva acquisition. And don’t delete a single email.”
“I’ll come,” he replied.
Then he added something I hadn’t expected.
“Alyssa, there’s something else. Jasmine didn’t take your seat this morning by accident.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“What do you mean?”
“She wanted you to leave the aircraft before we reached Geneva.”
“Why?”
He hesitated.
“Because she knew someone was waiting for you there.”
The call ended before I could ask another question.
I stared at the screen.
My father stepped closer.
“What did he say?”
I slowly lowered the phone.
“He says Jasmine wanted me off the aircraft before we reached Geneva.”
Daniel looked toward the folder on the desk.
“Then we need to find out why.”
Outside, the engines of another aircraft began to roar.
And somewhere across the city, Jasmine was probably realizing that the woman she had tried to humiliate was no longer willing to stay quietly in the background.
I had spent four years protecting Aaron’s reputation.
Now I was determined to uncover the truth.
Whatever it revealed about him.
Whatever it revealed about Jasmine.
And whatever it revealed about the empire I had helped build.
Because the next time I boarded that private jet, I would not be asking anyone for permission to take my seat.
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